Websites worldwide face millions of hacking attempts after AI uncovers a flaw in code behind 70% of the internet

In Britain, 32 government services went offline and four more were partially down, tech minister Baroness Lloyd of Effra told the Lords. Garages were reduced to recording MOT tests with pen and paper. Olly Whitehouse of the National Cyber Security Centre called the crisis 'unprecedented' but said there were no signs of successful breaches. Ministers have refused to say which services were hit.

Japan's SoftBank has suspended its earthquake and tsunami alerts while it patches its systems.

Microsoft boss Satya Nadella said: 'I've not seen anything like this in a long, long time.'

Details of the flaws reportedly became public before the fixes were ready.